With great intelligence also comes great responsibility.
It takes a fool to fall in love, but it takes an intelligent partner to make it last, according to new research.
General intelligence is a strong indicator of a person’s chances of success in life, as those who have it are more likely to experience academic and professional achievements that move them forward socially and economically.
In terms of romance, previous studies have also shown lower divorce rates and a greater likelihood of marriage in midlife among the intelligentsia.
Taking the research a step further, evolutionary psychologist Gavin S. of Oakland University in Michigan. Vance and his colleagues set out to find out which relationship factors, good or bad, were associated with intelligence – or the lack thereof.
For their new report, published in Personality and individual differencesThey decided to limit their experiments to heterosexual men, involving 202 participants aged 18–65 who had been in a relationship for six months or longer, with the average length of time being just over three and a half years.
The study team was required to take a cognitive test to assess general intelligence skills, such as problem-solving or the ability to apply logic, and took another survey that revealed positive and negative relationship behaviors.
The results showed that the more intelligent the man was, the more positive his relationship outcomes would be. Smart men demonstrated lower levels of harmful relationship behaviors such as verbal abuse, manipulation, and sexual coercion and higher levels of relationship satisfaction and preference.
Specifically, higher scores related to pattern recognition and sequential reasoning were strongly associated with men who invested more in their relationships and, conversely, displayed less problematic behavior overall. According to the researchers, this finding suggests that these skills may facilitate impulse control by helping men consider the consequences of habitual bad behavior.
However, researchers did not find any significant relationship between male intelligence and certain behaviors, such as jealousy, physical abuse, and the desire to dominate.
Further research to explore the relationship between romantic successes and female general intelligence, as well as its impact on other types of relationships, may help us get to the root of why love lasts.
